It is true that after the troublesome exi)erienees of the war, when their vessels had been captured and destroyed and their liberties menaced by the British enemv, they must have exi)erienced great satisfaction in hnding so safe a retreat ; 1 )ut it is also to Ijc believed that to eves accustomed to the unmitigated sand and unrelieved levels of Cape Cod, the green and fertile billows of the landscape that lies between the river and the " Katzbergs" must ha\-e been like a vision of Paradise. Hudson has attracted se\^eral artists of repute -- indeed, has been the birth] )lace of more than one of the school that it was the fashion a few years ago to refer to slightingl}^ as "Hudson River." Chin-ch and Gif-. ford lead the list of those who have been honoured among American painters. The first steamboat owned in Hudson was the Legislature, l)uilt elsewhere, but purchased l)y a Hudson firm in 1828 for towing puq^oses. Before that date all of the traffic had depended upon sail propulsion. One can hardly realise to-day how considerable that trade was ; for while Hudson is still a place of many factories and some business acti\'it\\ it no longer holds the prominent rank it once did among the ri\^er towns. Claverack Creek enters the river a short distance north of the old city. Its name is deri\^ed from Klauver Rack, which is the Dutch for Clover Reach. Athens, a thriving little town that was first named Lunenberg and